Two local cheerleaders make cut for GCCA’s Top 30
For the second straight year, the Catoosa-Walker County area has multiple cheer athletes who have been named to the Top 30 candidates for the Georgia Cheerleader Coaches’ Association (GCCA) All-State Team for Classes 1A-4A and Cheerleader of the Year.
This season, Heritage senior Allie Parker and Ridgeland senior Kaitlyn Boller made the cut and are now in the running to be selected.
Each year, some 200 cheerleaders from around the state are nominated by their coaches to compete for the award. The nominees are judged on things such as academics, community service, honors and other
athletics.
Parker said she was “honored” to be in the Top 30.
“I’m excited to compete against other great athletes,” she said. “I know it will be tough, but I’m really excited.”
She said she was on vacation when she got the good news.
“My coach sent something to my mom first and my mom sent it to me,” she explained. “I was pretty surprised because (the top 30) is (picked) from everybody out of the whole state and I didn’t expect to get picked. I was in shock, but I was very happy and I’m excited for this opportunity.”
Parker has been cheering for the better part of the last 12 years, including a past stint with an All-Star competition team out of Atlanta. She said it would be an honor to be named All-State and be in the running to be the GCCA Cheerleader of the Year.
“It would help my parents out a lot too, because there is scholarship money available if you win,” she added. “But I would prove to myself that I’m better than what I thought I was and that I do have potential, if I want to, to cheer in college. This could go a long way towards me doing this in college.”
Heritage head cheer coach Meredith Burkett said she and her program were “so incredibly proud” of Parker making the initial cut, especially as Parker is now the first cheerleader in Heritage history to be selected to the top 30.
“Allie has worked hard and dedicated so much of her time to cheerleading for years and she is well deserving of this honor,” she explained. “This is the first year our program has participated in the competition and it is so exciting for one of our own to make it this far.
“We look forward to seeing her compete in August with the other members of the top 30. No doubt she will do amazing!”
Boller also said it felt great to make the cut.
“I was super excited to learn that I made it to the top 30 since it includes everybody in the whole state,” she said. “It makes me proud to know that all my hard work has paid off.”
“It would mean a lot (to make the All-State Team),” she added. “It would mean that all the hard work and all the stuff that I’ve done the last four years — trying to lead in my community, cheering for the football team on the sidelines and performing on the competition mat — has finally paid off. But I know I’ll be representing my entire team, not just me.”
Boller, now in her seventh year as a competitive cheerleader, said it felt good to know that she’s just the second Ridgeland cheerleader to ever make the top 30, following up on what 2021 graduate Michelle Thomason did last year.
“We are super excited for Kaitlyn,” Ridgeland head coach Abby Bates said. “Her resume is stacked. She had a lot to put on there because she’s just a great studentathlete and we’re super excited for her.
“She has been working for this moment since she was in the sixth grade. She has great motions and she’s a great sideline and all-around cheerleader. (Plus), she’s an ambassador for her school, which makes her a top candidate.”
Last year, Abbey Dunfee (Gordon Lee) and Sydney Logan (Ringgold) went on to be named to the 16-member All-State Team for Classes 1A-4A.